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In reply to the discussion: Slotkin calls for 'new leadership' in the Democratic Party [View all]LiberalLovinLug
(14,780 posts)They have acted completely biased and put their thumb on the scales for one candidate over the other. That's because they could, as there is no actual law against it. Ultimately the DNC can finangle whomever they want to win...or at least try as hard as they can to cut the legs out of competing candidates.
Sanders was betrayed in '16 by Wasserman and the DNC. First off, she gave Hillary the questions in advance for her debate.
In the lead up to Iowa, the DNC claimed that Bernie staffers had hacked the Hillary side of the voter database and used it as a pretext to freeze Bernie's access to the voter database. In reality, both sides had access to each other's data and the Bernie side realized, ran a few searches to see how extensive the security breach was, and reported it to the DNC. The DNC used that as a pretext to block Bernie's access to the data collected by his own staff to hamper Bernie's turn out the vote effort. Bernie had to sue to get access back.
The DNC also helped Hillary launder donations and circumvent campaign finance maximums. The maximum donors could legally donate directly to Hillary was legally $2,700. But by having donors donate $10,000 to each of the state parties and $33,400 and then sending that money back to Hillary, they were able to donate $356,100 per person. Ultimately, she raised over $82 million through the scheme and allowed the state parties to keep about half of one percent. The DNC didn't disclose that publicly at the time and later said they would have done it for Sanders too if he asked (which is hilarious since Bernie's average donation was $2,700). Ultimately, that resulted in the state parties being in dire financial straits since all the best Democratic donors had already donated the legal maximum to the state parties and the state parties essentially hadn't got any money out of it. https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/dnc-leak-clinton-team-deflected-state-cash-concerns-226191
Ultimately, when Bernie donors sued arguing that the DNC purported to hold a fair primary while secretly rigging it which fraudulently induced them to donate to Bernie, the DNC pled in court that it had every right to rig its primary in a smoke filled back room if it wanted to.
In the court's dismissal, it quoted the DNC's argument disapprovingly before conceding that the DNC had a legal right to rig the primary even though it had an ethical obligation not to: "For their part, the DNC and Wasserman Schultz have characterized the DNC charters promise of impartiality and evenhandedness as a mere political promisepolitical rhetoric that is not enforceable in federal courts.